Colleagues describe Hammam Battah as optimistic and personable. They know him as someone who has always excelled in scientific subjects — especially math and physics — and point to him as the “go to” person when you need a solution to a complex problem. In fact, this latter characteristic served as Battah’s impetus to help solve one of the world’s most pressing issues, which is the growing shortage of fresh water in the southwest United States, and several countries in Africa and Asia. Years of research and perseverance made it possible for him to do something that generations of engineers have only dreamed of: desalinating water using solar energy and converting the stored energy into electricity. Both of these cost-efficient discoveries elevated Battah’s status to double patent inventor by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the Solar Distillation System and the Solar Thermal Energy Conversion System.

As CEO of Solar Water Energy, Battah is helping to make history.  His first patent is the basis for the design and construction of one of the world’s first solar water energy plants on the campus of Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT).  The plant will purify groundwater and make the site completely self-sufficient, producing up to 230,000 liters every day.

This momentous accomplishment was preceded by many others.  After he earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in civil engineering from the University of Baghdad, Battah immediately started a career building power, water treatment and other industrial plants in Iraq as an employee and subcontractor, and jointly with foreign companies from New Zealand, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak Federative Republic), Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Great Britain and Italy.

Early in his career, Battah earned a reputation for solving very difficult construction problems, especially those relating to the quality and required strength of materials to build bridges and dams. He was consulted by engineers around the world because of his natural talent to “figure things out” and an innate curiosity of how to make things work.    

After immigrating to the United States in 1994, he worked as a field engineer, managing water main replacements in southeast Michigan. The Detroit Water & Sewerage Department heard about his propensity for solving problems and managing big projects and hired him as a civil engineer. For the next 10 years, he managed a variety of construction contracts such as the rehabilitation of reinforced concrete ground water storage tanks, asbestos/lead based paint abatement for all department facilities, and roofing replacements of more than two million sq. ft. of all water department facilities.

Throughout his career, Battah has worked on and/or managed more than one billion dollars worth of civil engineering projects.

His instinctive curiosity is steadily applied to his ongoing desire to solve water shortages around the world. Battah has three more scientific breakthroughs awaiting patent approval: a Wave Breaker System, a Solar Distillation System with no reject water, and an improvement on the existing Solar Distillation System patent. He is listed in Who's Who in America, 2006 edition, Who's Who in the World, 2007 edition, and Who's Who in Science and Engineering, 2007 edition.

He and his wife, Haifa, have two sons, and are the proud grandparents of a granddaughter. Battah says he enjoys a good soccer game and track and field events when time permits, which isn’t very often. Why? Because of that same passion we mentioned earlier. He’s busy solving major problems facing mankind, one patent at a time.